Celebrating Earth Day across the world

People mark Earth Day 2011 by cleaning up the environment, protesting, planting trees and raising awareness.

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April 22, 2011

Environmental activists and participants take part in a performance to mark World Earth Day at the Seoul City Hall plaza. Earth Day marks an annual effort to raise public awareness about the environment and inspire actions to clean it up.

Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters

April 23, 2011

Cloth diaper enthusiasts set an earth-friendly world record in Takoma Park, Md. and simultaneously in 400 locations in more than 20 countries around the world as part of The Great Cloth Diaper Change. Thousands of parents and babies set a record for the most cloth diapers ever changed simultaneously. In the US and canada nearly 90% of babies are diapered in disposable diapers, meaning 60,000 diapers will enter landfills during the one minute parents changed diapers. It is estimated to take 250-500 years for disposable diapers to decompose.

Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post

April 23, 2011

John Irons, of Washington, D.C. changes his daughter Zahra Aliyah Abdullah Irons during the event in Maryland.

Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post

April 23, 2011

John Paul Giorgis, 5 mos., has his diaper changed.

Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post

April 23, 2011

After the change, parents including Lior Moller, of Rockville, Md. and her son Eitan, smile and hold up their babies.

Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post

April 22, 2011

Environment activists hold up a replica of a globe as they commemorate Earth Day in Makassar, Indonesia. World Earth Day falls on April 22 every year.

Yusuf Ahmad / Reuters

April 22, 2011

A woman holding a plant poses for photographers during a campaign to mark World Earth Day at the Seoul City Hall plaza.

Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters

April 22, 2011

Activists hold placards during a demonstration held in conjunction with Earth Day against a planned $230 million rare earth plant to be built near Kuantan, Malaysia. Residents living around the area of the plant to be built by Australian miner Lynas Corp. have raised questions over the potential environmental hazards arising from radioactive waste.

Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

April 22, 2011

A woman and her daughter touch a structural model of the earth's core at Nanjing Geological Museum in Nanjing, China. The Chinese characters on the model read "outer core."

Sean Yong / Reuters

April 21, 2011

Corporate volunteers plant trees in the Brooklyn borough of New York as part of an Earth Day celebration and in support of MillionTreesNYC, a public-private partnership between New York Restoration Project and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, through which 1 million new trees will be planted and cared for across New York's five boroughs by 2017.

Avi Gerver / AP

April 21, 2011

Burmese villagers line up to fetch drinking water from a lake in Dalla.

Khin Maung Win / AP

April 21, 2011

South Korean environmental activists wearing gas masks and raincoats stage a rally to commemorate the upcoming Earth Day in Seoul. The activists denounced nuclear facilities in South Korea.

Ahn Young-joon / AP

April 19, 2011

Students pose for a photo with a globe during a campaign to mark Earth Day in a middle school in Dexing, China.

China Daily / Reuters

April 19, 2011

A Filipino activist wears a slogan against the use of nuclear power during a rally in Manila. The group held the protest to mark Earth Day ahead of its global commemoration Friday.

Aaron Favila / AP

April 19, 2011

A tourist takes pictures along the Santiago crater of the Masaya volcano, one of the more active volcanoes, south of Managua, Nicaragua.

Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters

April 17, 2011

Volunteers lie in a sand sculpture created by artist Todd Brittingham titled "Sun and the Moon" at Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral, Fla., during an Earth Day celebration.

Craig Rubadoux / AP

April 16, 2011

Taiwanese singer A-mei listens to natural sounds during the Earth Day activity "Listen to the Earth" in Taipei, Taiwan.

Chiang Ying-ying / AP

April 16, 2011

Matthew Spies of West Burlington, Iowa, part of a group of West Burlington Wal-Mart employees and family members who volunteered to pick up trash during the 11th annual Earth Day cleanup, carries two tires out of a ravine.

John Lovretta / AP

April 16, 2011

Earth Day volunteers Genevieve Cristobal of San Francisco, left, and Toshia Marshall of Oakland, Calif., help plant native species with other volunteers as they work to restore Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco.

Darryl Bush / AP

April 16, 2011

Students attach cutout paper leaves on a mock tree made of cardboard during their campaign to protect the environment as part of the celebration of Earth Day in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila. The students called for a halt to commercial logging and mining.

Pat Roque / AP

April 16, 2011

Sudents join hands and shout during their campaign to protect the environment as part of the celebration of Earth Day in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila.

Pat Roque / AP

March 24, 2011

Israeli industrial designer Hadas Itzcovitch walks next to a model of a world globe she created using recycled bottles ahead of Earth Day in the city of Petah Tikvah near Tel Aviv.

Ariel Schalit / AP

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ANNAPOLIS, MD- MAY 29: Graduates cheer as the Blue Angels fly over during the 100th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremonies in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. U.S Sec. of Defense Leon Edward Panetta gave the graduation address. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

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Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the commencement address at the ceremony.

LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 26: Singer/actress Jennifer Lopez (C) performs with dancers during the Q'Viva! The Chosen Live show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on May 26, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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COVINGTON, LA - MAY 14: Brother Emmanuel Labrise of St. Joseph's Abbey prepares a casket for lining on May 15, 2012 in Covington, Louisiana. Louisiana law forbids those who are not licensed funeral directors from selling caskets. And since Hurricane Katrina leveled the timberlands that once provided the main source of funding for the abbey, the monks have attempted to make a living by building and selling simple cypress caskets. The monks won their first round last year, and have a hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in June. (Photo by Sean Gardner/For the Washington Post)

Louisiana monks fight for the right to sell coffins

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